Chenju, Feb. 27.
Branding as false a Japanese re-jert that the 19th Route Army fired on the 88th Division to prevent it from retreating, General Tsai Ting-kai, commander of the 19th. Route Army, indignantly said:
"Not only are the Japanese guilty lof brute violence, but they have lost fall sense of manhood. They have been spreading tales first that, only section of the 19th Route Army Text that the 19th infested with communists; then comes the report that the National Government has cent [troops to surround the 19th Route Army, watching it and isolating its movements; and now comes the baseless rumour that there is dissension at the front between the 19th Route Army and the other government troops, "The 88th Division has been ighting with a, courage and fo tude beyond all praise. And we who have been giving our life's blood in defence of our country and are every day ready to lay down Jour lives can have no quarrel among. Ourselves. 'Ths Japanese had in~ finitely superior armaments; they have an enormous array of acroplanes and artillery of the most modern sort, with the powerful support of their naval forces, we have only' confront them. Even this morale they do not scruple to attempt to rob us!"
General Tsai also refuted the Japanese report that the Chinese Jarmy has been threatening the Settlements. "He said: "During the first few days of the battle when our troops had only a few thousand cowered and eaten Jay marines before them, T could have walked my troops into Hongkew and the North Szechuen Road sector. That this is no empty boast, every foreign military man would be able confirm, "Nevertheless, we obeyed cate gorically the orders of our government to remain strictly on the defence and not to occupy any portion jof the Settlements, As a military man, I must say that this rest vice tion prevented us from developing, Jour victory and throw the Japanese Into the sea, for I would then assuredly forthwith return the oc-Jcupied portion. of the Settlements to the International Defence force provided they would undertake not to allow the Japanese in future to use the Settlements as their base of operations, "Nevertheless, orders are orders, and T cannot but feel that the deci sion of the government was based fon larger political wisdom, because the Settlements obtain much of the wealth of our own people that. would be irreparably destroyed by. fighting.
"Quite frankly also, China's fight against. the Japanese, whether on the field of battle or in diploms would last for years and even scores years, and to secure eventual otary we must win the support of the world by a solicitous regard for the interest of foreigners."—Kuo Min.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.